"The elephant took one of his feet off my chest, so I can breathe a little bit now," said Barnes' mother, Janice Mustafa.

Barnes' father, Russell Barnes, also spoke to WBAL-TV 11 News on his reaction to the verdict.

"Like I said before, we believe she -- Phylicia -- can rest now. She can sleep. Justice has been served as we've been fighting for the last almost two-and-a-half years. Justice has been served for my daughter. This is a bittersweet day. This should've never happened. It's torn up three families from one person's act," Russell Barnes said.

Jurors began deliberating the case Monday afternoon and returned to the courtroom to deliver the verdict before noon on Wednesday after nine-and-a-half hours of deliberation.

Johnson's father, as well as his defense attorneys, said they were very disappointed with the verdict, I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said.

"It is what it is, and we still feel in our hearts that Michael Johnson is not guilty," said Glenton Johnson, Johnson's father.

Johnson had little reaction other than bowing his head for a moment, Miller reported.

"I asked him, I said, 'Are you OK?' And he said, 'I'm just numb,'" defense attorney Russell Neverdon said. "He's just in shock. He's in disbelief."

Miller reported that jurors rejected the first-degree murder charge, which was premeditated murder.

The case depended heavily on the testimony of an inmate, known as both James McCray and James Lee. He claimed Johnson called him the day Barnes disappeared from a northwest Baltimore apartment, admitted killing her after forcing to have sex, and needed help getting rid of the body. The inmate got the date and apartment location wrong during testimony, but prosecutors used him to argue premeditated first-degree murder, Miller reported.

"Any time you're the state and you bring a high-profile murder case such as this, you have to have a first-degree conviction, and they did not. So, I think that speaks volumes for their case, and then when you see the jury come back with second-degree on this type of case, then, to me, that shows a compromise. There were a number of issues the jury was having, as well," defense attorney Ivan Bates said.

Russell Barnes said on the news of the verdict that his family is "still just soaking it in." Barnes' father, who is from Baltimore, said it was an incredibly painful wait as the family learned of the circumstances around his daughter's fate.

"We did our own investigation and we brought it to police, and we know Phylicia wasn't going to go outside of the family, so we just stuck there with it. We just know how much she loved her family and how much she loved Baltimore -- how much that she anticipated on living a full life," Russell Barnes said.

City State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein said he was very pleased with the verdict.

"We're prepared to take the tough cases to court when we feel that the evidence warrants it, and at the end of the day, of course, this is really about Phylicia Barnes and her family," Bernstein said.

Sentencing for Johnson takes place in March.

Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors the inmate was getting nothing for his testimony, but on Wednesday, 10 days were knocked off the one-year sentence he was serving for car theft in Charles County, Miller reported.

On Tuesday, jurors were given the option of taking an early lunch break to watch the Ravens victory parade as it rolled past the courthouse, but they declined.

Barnes' body was found in April 2011 in the Susquehanna River in Cecil County. Johnson was arrested and charged with murder a year later.

In closing arguments Monday, prosecutors admitted they had no smoking gun but said Johnson's defense didn't add up. Defense lawyers argued that police zeroed in on Johnson to the exclusion of other possibilities and, despite the work of four law enforcement agencies over the past two years, they argued the biggest answers were missing.

"Who, what when, how and why -- the state still has not answered," defense lawyers said.

To check out past testimony, click on the links to the previous stories posted to the left.

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